Sunday, January 6, 2013

Walker cuts State Revenues by over $500 million in 3 years, Businesses almost exempt from Taxes in 10 years. More cuts on the way...

In the next three years, the Walker Authority and majority Republicans will have cut state revenues by over $500 million. That might be just enough to wipe out all future "surpluses."

As we all know, tax cuts don't pay for themselves. Here's a look at all the new and previously put off tax cuts, delayed from 2007-2009 because of the Great Recession, given the green light by the worst managers of taxpayer money. From the Wisconsin Budget Project:

Remember, the Doyle tax cuts could have been delayed or repealed, no one forced the Republicans to drain state revenues by including them. More to the point, blaming the Democrats for tax cuts made before anyone knew there would be a recession and the following weak economic recovery would be another convenient lie. 

Since more tax cuts are on the way, Walker's budget goals are similar to the Bush tax strategy; revenue surpluses must be returned to taxpayers instead of paying down the long term structural debt not included in the state's "balanced budget." We're about to repeat the Bush years under the name of Walker. 

Here's the lowdown:
The tax changes are diverse, but the new Budget Project analysis indicates that they share one thing in common: They were phased-in or delayed in such a way that much of the cost to the state treasury would not come due until the 2013-15 budget, thereby necessitating spending cuts or offsetting tax increases in the next budget.

The incremental cost of the increased tax cuts taking effect in January will total about $528 million over a three-year period from fiscal year 2013 through fiscal year 2015 (measured relative to FY 2012 revenue.)
And corporate welfare?
One example is a new income tax cut for businesses based on income derived from manufacturing or agricultural property. That cut is phased in over four years, starting in 2013. When the credit is fully phased in, businesses will pay an estimated $129 million less in income tax each year, and it will almost completely exempt many manufacturers from Wisconsin income tax. The cumulative ten-year cost of the credit is about $874 million.
Wow, and how will that be made up? I'll bet that even under ten years of Republican rule, we'll still be "spending too much." This is a form of TABOR; the ratcheting down of what we knew as government services.

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